Entitled "True Vision"
I was recently able to attend
a Thursday morning
art inspiration time
with my Calligraphy teacher and mentor
at the beautiful One 11 Art Gallery
It was a simple two hour workshop
entitled
"Zen of Seeing"
What a treat it was for me!
We gathered quietly at the art table,
and began with a quiet exercise
of drawing for a twenty minute time period
(I was able to share my new app Insight Timer from my iPhone),
The directions were to look at the still life (below)
she had set up for us.
The only thing we were to do
was draw what we saw,
never looking at our work,
letting our eyes tell the story,
not picking up our pen
and NO TALKING!
We slowly drew,
listened to beautiful music
softly playing in the background.
It taught me for sure to
slow myself down,
after hurriedly trying to get to class!
Our Still Life to work with
My little finished piece
We then took the time to share with each other
our drawings and explain how that felt
not being able to look at our work while drawing.
It is truly amazing what your eye tells your hand
Betsy's demo with Inktense blocks
She then took Intense blocks
and just colored a few areas of her drawing,
she then used a spray bottle of water on top,
and blew the water colors around,
it was so spontaneous and lovely!
(Of course now Intense blocks are on my art wish list!)
The second exercise was even more exciting to me,
she pulled out her large collection of colored inks
it was like a candy store!
Betsy's collection of colors
We were asked to chose three colors that spoke to us,
this certainly took a little time,
there were so many choices!
Betsy then demonstrated watering down
a sheet of paper,
adding ink drops of color to the paper
and then we put saran wrap over the colors,
allowing to dry outside
(it was a most beautiful morning that day!)
Betsy's demo
My color choices
Smearing the colors
After our colors had dried, we then had
a beautiful sheet of ink colored paper to work with
then the fun began ...
Betsy demonstrated and talked about different
ink pens to work with, and I was tickled
to try some new pens, I am so used to the
Micron pens with my Zentangle ....
She then began to demonstrate how to start outlining,
shapes and objects from the dried splotches on the paper,
the Zen of seeing ... enjoying the process.
We weren't able to finish our drawings
in class, but here is mine ...
My complete work!
I enjoyed this process so much
and I have learned even more since I purchased
the book Betsy recommended to us
The Zen of Seeing by Frederick Frank
(inside the manuscript is completely handwritten!)
What a treasure to add to my creative library
Awesome book recommendation
I learned and experienced way more than I thought I would,
on a simple Thursday morning!
I was thrilled to have some time off that day,
and that there was an opening in her class!
I could have just stayed home and done housework,
but where is the fun in that?
Reach out, find a fun little workshop to attend,
all the new things you learn can just be added
to your creative toolbox!
Mine is becoming quite full these days!
Donna Lee
living creatively each and everyday!
